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Germany is examining plans to prohibit banks from imposing negative interest rates on savers, threatening to leave lenders in an impossible position and greatly complicating the job of the European Central Bank as it prepares fresh stimulus.

The outlandish move comes amid growing German irritation with the radical monetary experiments of the ECB and its policy of negative rates - currently minus 0.4pc but soon to go yet lower - deemed an assault on hard-working savers and known as “punishment rates” by the country’s media.

Olof Scholz, Germany’s finance minister, said his officials are exploring whether it is legally possible to shield savers from further cuts. “I don’t think it is a good...